President Obama’s Social Media Updates, Campaign Emails Get Hijacked

The Syrian Electronic Army has made quite a name for itself. It has hacked a number of high profile Twitter accounts as well as websites, and its latest target is related to probably the most high profile individual on the planet, U.S. President Barack Obama. The President’s social media updates on Facebook and Twitter were hijacked today apparently by exploiting a vulnerability in the URL shortener that is used to promote Organizing for Action, which supports Obamacare. Furthermore, the Syrian Electronic Army also claims that it has been able to access “many Obama campaign emails,” and has also been able to hack into Obama’s donation website. The hijacked links posted on Facebook and Twitter took visitors to a 24 minute video titled “Syria facing terrorism,” but they have now been fixed.

Suzanna Snurpus, an OFA organizer, has confirmed to Quartz that they’ve indeed been hacked but that they’ve now taken “measures” to fix it, all passwords have been changed and an extra layer of login security has also been added. The SEA also managed to redirect part of the President’s website OFA.BO to its website. In a tweet the SEA described its motive, saying that “Obama doesn’t have any ethical issues with spying on the world, so we took it upon ourselves to return the favor.” This is in obvious retaliation to the NSA spying revelations that have been made over the last couple of months, and while the NSA doesn’t show any signs of stopping any time soon, it remains to be seen exactly what the pro-Assad Syrian Electronic Army strikes next.